Charcoal Grace - Caligula’s Horse
Track List:
The World Breathes with Me
Golem
Charcoal Grace I: Prey
Charcoal Grace II: A World Without
Charcoal Grace III: Vigil
Charcoal Grace IV: Give Me Hell
Sails
The Stormchaser
Mute
Preface:
I wouldn’t want to be Caligula’s horse. Caligula wasn’t exactly known for his gentle, compassionate demeanor. This is going to be a different one for me. I don’t think I’ve listened to any metal extensively for nearly 20 years. Looking over the track list and times Im excited. 2 songs that are in 10 minutes or longer and the entire Charcoal Grace suite. I have no idea if it’s called that or anything but it sounds correct. I am actually a bit excited for this one. A guy who I see at concerts often had recommended this band at the start of the year. I asked around on the band’s subreddit for suggestions for an album and I was suggested most of their albums I believe. From reading the comments it sounded like this one is the bands most complicated in a musical sense and has the most depth given it is the most recent album of theirs it would make sense that with maturity and experience the band wants to play more challenging things.. With my pension for prog and storytelling I thought that this would be a good starting off point. I’ve been able to confirm the lyrics are available so I am really looking forward to this.
The World Breathes with Me
The first really lengthy song. This is nice, wide but not spacey. Really impressed with how the song grew and filled out, still no lyrics. Listened thru the 2nd repeat of the chorus. Wow! The solo was good. I like how they go from a full soundstage and then into vast openness, they are painting a world and giving disposition. I really liked that. I get some Linkin Park memories from the delivery of the lyrics, specifically the phrases with the title of the song in them. The song is a prayer for the world. It’s acknowledging the media is attempting to depress people. There is a reference of people being led. And then apologizing for the state of the world for an illusion of peace and false happiness. The person who is praying wants the ideal world, peace and happiness. But he answered back that the world was made the way it is by people and people are part of the world. I didn’t do any research on this album so I don’t know if it’s a concept album or not. That was a good song.
Golem
This is a different style. This song is driven forward. The song talks about feeling like a golem in society. That you are trapped in doing soulless menial tasks and that is where the world wants you and feeling like the world is destroying itself.
Charcoal Grace I: Prey
Now the suite. The soundscape is more like The World Breathes with Me, a more open arena. That intro was fantastic. The refrain is unsettling and disturbing and amazing. There is pretty heavy religious imagery. I have noticed it a bit in the previous songs but this seems a lot more explicit. Now that I think about it, the first song was a prayer.
Charcoal Grace II: A World Without
The song opens with a memory of the narrator's estranged father asking for forgiveness and then hate and vitriol about wanting to change the son. The son declares his worth and renounces his faith.
Charcoal Grace III: Vigil
A prayer to the narrator's new deity. She wants him to be instrumental in changing the world.
Charcoal Grace IV: Give Me Hell
A complete rejection of the narrator’s faith. Asserting that the hell that the faith threatens him with for leaving can’t be worse than his experience within the religion. That was quite a good piece.
Sails
A song about learning from experience, growth and maturation.I like the solos in this one. Still has a very wide stage and gets into spacey territory.
The Stormchaser
I like the intro, that’s just fun. The song is a conversation from one person to another asking them how they can be acting the way they are in contrast to their proclaimed faith.
Mute
So this verse in the first song was foreshadowing, this is much more powerful.
That was great
It’s an outlook from a religious narrator watching their religion bend and corrupt for causes that directly contradict the religion’s own tenets. What I am amazed by is that this is a take on current issues and takes on society. I do like the style, it reminds me of listening to A Perfect Circle, The Union Underground, and Coal Chamber. There were lyrical deliveries that reminded me of Linkin Park over the course of the album. There were quite a few religious overtones in this album, however I think that was more a reflection on the writer’s self and how he handles self expression and perhaps shows his own struggles with faith.
